Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the suspension of firearm certificate grants by Gloucestershire Constabulary.

Chief Constables have operational responsibility for consideration of firearms licensing applications and the allocation of resources to firearms licensing units.

However, we expect police forces to ensure that all applications for firearm certificates, whether new applications or those for renewal, are dealt with as efficiently as possible subject to addressing public safety risks.